


In the distance

by Ernmark (M_Moonshade)



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Gen, Statement
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-17
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-24 00:29:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14344152
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/M_Moonshade/pseuds/Ernmark
Summary: Statement of Dani Nichols, September 2nd, 2017





	In the distance

**Statement of Dani Nichols, September 2nd, 2017.**

**Statement Begins.**

You want my– my what? My statement?

Yes. Of course. Anything. I’ll talk about whatever you want. What do you want me to say?

Sorry, I’m a little bit flaky right now. You have no idea how long it’s been since I’ve spoken to another person.  _I_  don’t even know how long it’s been. 

Okay, my statement: I stole an airplane. I stole a lot of things, actually. I’m sorry, I really am! I didn’t want to do it, but I really needed it. I know that doesn’t make it better. I tried paying for the stuff at first, but eventually I ran out of money, and there wasn’t anybody to ask me for it, so I just kind of… took it? I left a note. I left lots of notes. More than I can remember.

Sorry, I know I’m not making a lot of sense. I’m not used to talking to people, I guess. And I mean, can you blame me?

Sorry. That was confusing. Let me back up a bit. 

I’m American– but you probably knew that already, didn’t you? I’ve still got an accent, I think? I’m from Ohio– I don’t know how much you know about the States, but it’s one of the biggish ones in the middle with a lot of corn. I’m from Aurora specifically. You probably haven’t heard of it, but it’s not too far from Cleveland, if that means anything to you. It’s not a big town; there were never a whole lot of people there, even before everyone disappeared. And that never bothered me before, you know? I mean, I’ve always been pretty okay at being by myself. That’s why I took the job.

It was the night shift, see, and I was supposed to be guarding this warehouse in the middle of nowhere. I don’t think the warehouse was actually used for anything– at least, I never saw any signs of it being used– but they needed to keep people out for insurance purposes. You know, in case teenagers fell off something and their parents tried to sue, or in case somebody tried to set it on fire or whatever. That kind of thing.

Sorry, I don’t know a ton of details. I got placed through a staffing agency, and all my checks came through them.

It was pretty simple work, really. My shift started around eleven at night, and then I’d have to go around to each of the checkpoints once an hour. There were these little mechanisms at each one, with these keys in them, you know? And I’d turn the key to prove I’d been there and that I’d been doing my job. The whole thing took maybe fifteen minutes, and then I’d go back to my station and read a book.

The company was too cheap to have two guards at the same time, so I’d arrive after the day shift had left and leave before the morning shift arrived, and all my paychecks were direct-deposit, so I never really saw anybody.

I mean that. Even at home, I never really saw  _anybody_. I lived alone, and I’m not really close with my family. I did my shopping on my way home from work at a twenty-four-hour grocery store, and it was so early in the morning that there’d be maybe six people in the entire building. Most of my free time was spent playing video games or watching movies on my own. Yeah, I had friends, but they were always busy and our schedules never really matched up, so mostly we communicated by text and email, and sometimes it could take days for them to reply.

Which is why I can’t actually tell you when it started.

I’d been working at the warehouse for a little more than six months when the loneliness started getting to me, and I reached out to my friend Sam. But Sam never texted back, or called. And I get it– they’re busy– but then, neither did Julie, or Juanita, or Stacy. I tried calling them, too, but they never picked up. And that was weird, sure, but not… super weird? 

I don’t know if it was before then or after that I started noticing that the cashier was never around at the grocery store. I always figured they were off taking a break or something, but you’d think I would see them once or twice, right?

And I noticed that my car was always alone on the road.

I thought I was being paranoid. I mean, that’s natural, isn’t it? Spend too long shut away from the world, and you start thinking you’re the last person on earth, right? It’s dumb, isn’t it?

Only it wasn’t so dumb. 

Because I started getting a bit stir crazy, so I decided to stay up and try calling people at a reasonable hour. Only they still wouldn’t pick up. When I drove around town, the shops were all open, but there wasn’t anybody inside them. I started going up to people’s houses, banging on their doors, but nobody would answer me. 

Only– only there had to still be people around, you know? Because the shops were open. The doors were open, the lights were on. When I bought things at the self-checkout, the shelves would be restocked the next time I came in. So there had to be people there, they were just… I don’t know, hiding from me or something, right?

Like a– like a prank? A prank that the whole town was in on?

I– I think I started going a little bit crazy at that point. I kind of blew up at the grocery store. Not like that– I didn’t like shoot it up or anything, I just threw a fit. Knocked a bunch of boxes off the shelves, made a big mess. And then when I was done melting down, I just sat down right there and waited for somebody to clean it up. I figured somebody would have to come eventually– either that, or else the Rapture happened or something, and I was the last person left alive. I sat there for hours, not moving. I was sore, and the floor was hard and cold, but I was so tired, I must have finally just… drifted off. Because when I came to, I was lying on the floor of the cereal aisle, and the shelves were all cleaned up, good as new. Even the box I’d ripped open had been swept up. You’d think that whoever came to clean it up would have woken me, but they didn’t, and I didn’t hear anything. 

I tried a few more times in the grocery store, and then in the gas station, the movie theater, the coffee shop. Always the same thing. It was always fixed when I fell asleep.

I tried not sleeping for a while. I dosed myself on so much caffeine that I gave myself palpitations, thinking I could wait them out. I made it seventy-two hours, and still I didn’t see anybody.

So I figured, whatever was happening, maybe it was just Aurora. Maybe there was a gas leak or something, you know, like that one town where the coal mine caught fire– Centralia?– they had to evacuate it, but there were still a handful of people left. So I figured maybe if I just left it would be fine.

So I drove up to Twinsburg, the next town over? And I knew it wasn’t going to be any better, because the roads were just as empty. So I figured, maybe whatever happened got Twinsburg, too. So I drove up to Cleveland. Only it was empty, too. 

I just started driving after that point. I followed I-90 for a while, to Erie and then Buffalo and then Rochester. Even freakin’ New York City was just empty.

No. Not entirely empty. There was this… this thing. I’d see it sometimes, driving.

No, that’s not the word, either. It’s not that I’d see it, it was more that I… didn’t see other things. When you’re driving at night in the countryside, you can see for miles, especially when Lake Erie is right there. The stars are gorgeous. But sometimes I’d look out over the lake, and there’d be this… blackness. Like the stars were blocked off by a skyscraper, or a mountain or something, but I knew there was nothing there. And skyscrapers and mountains aren’t that shape…

I thought it was maybe a statue or something. Maybe some big monument on an island? But I kept driving and it kept being there. And then it stopped being there only sometimes, and it was there every night. And then it started getting closer. Bigger. Only barely, but what started out as just a dark patch on the horizon became a real shape. I only saw it move once– just once– when I was staring at it and suddenly a few stars winked out. 

You’d think I would have been curious or something, but I was terrified. I don’t know what would happen to me if that thing got close enough for me to see it, but I don’t want to know.

So I drove until I hit the coast, and then I kept going. In New York I found an air field and a bunch of manuals, and I kind of… taught myself how to fly? I wasn’t very good at it, but there wasn’t anyone around to stop me from practicing until I got it right.

I didn’t want to steal the plane. You have to understand that. I didn’t want to. I was scared of what would happen. But I was more scared of that… thing. Pretty soon it took up half the night sky, and I just… I couldn’t stay any longer. I couldn’t. So I took the plane, and I took it here. 

I think part of me was hoping that I could outrun it. Or that whatever happened to the United States didn’t reach here.

I was wrong both times.

You’re the first person I’ve seen since this started. All of London is just… empty. I think the whole world is empty. At least for me.

And that thing…

It’s out there right now. That’s why I ducked into this building, you know. Because I looked up, and I realized I couldn’t see the opposite end of the street. 

Please– please let me stay here. Just for a bit. Please. Please? I just– I need somebody to talk to. 

I don’t want to be alone again. 

**Statement ends.**


End file.
